A phone call with an old rival changed my sourdough recipe forever

I've been making the same sourdough for about 6 years, never really questioned it. Then last Tuesday I got a call from this guy who used to beat me at county fair baking back in 2018. He said my crumb looked 'too polite' and asked if I ever tried a 20 minute autolyse instead of my usual 10. I laughed it off, but after I hung up I actually tested it with the next batch, and yeah, the difference was night and day. That little tweak added maybe 15 minutes to my morning routine, but the oven spring is noticeably better. Has anyone else had a stubborn habit get fixed by someone you least expected to hear from?

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the_rowan2mo ago

Tried letting my dough rest an extra hour after years of skipping it, and the difference surprised me too.

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the_dylan2mo ago

...and honestly I'm still annoyed about it because the guy was a total jerk about my scoring, but dammit if that 20 minute autolyse didn't just fix the one thing I'd been blaming my oven for. @the_rowan, you get it, the extra rest time feels like cheating until you see the results, then you just feel dumb for years of stubbornness. I spent three batches convincing myself it was a fluke before I admitted the old rival was right. Now I have to text him a photo of my best crumb and pretend I didn't have to google what autolyse even meant.

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